Facebook Introduces ‘Showcase,’ A New Premium Video Ad Program

Facebook has launched a new premium video ad program to allow advertisers to target US audiences in its premium content available on Watch.

As Facebook’s video ecosystem grows further, Facebook wants to give online video and TV ad buyers who buy upfront airtime the opportunity to reach their audiences in its “highest-quality” videos. Whether they are part of Facebook’s latest list of new original series or premium creator content on Watch, premium video is where it’s at.

Facebook Showcase is now available for campaigns that target US audiences, and includes In-Stream Reserve, In-Stream Reserve Categories, and Sponsorships:

– In-Stream Reserve placements “are bought in advance at a fixed cost and delivered to in-target audiences verified by Nielsen” and allow advertisers to “reach people watching video from a selection of hundreds of the most engaging, highest quality publishers and creators,” reaching an average of almost 100 million people in the US. That’s how many people watch In-Stream Reserve eligible content on Facebook Watch, Newsfeed and Pages on Facebook every month.
– In-Stream Reserve Categories allows advertisers to reach people within what Facebook calls “contextually relevant content” i.e. sports, fashion/beauty and entertainment. Facebook is also adding food and news categories here as well. In-Stream Reserve Categories includes all the features of In-Stream Reserve.
– Sponsorships allow advertisers to place their ads in specific shows, giving them the opportunity to be the exclusive sponsor of a program for US viewers.

Along with Showcase, Facebook is also announcing a new animated comedy series on Watch, called “Human Discoveries,” that stars Zac Efron and Anna Kendrick, and the launch of the recently-announced reimagining of MTV Studios’ “The Real World.” The series is launching on Watch “with all-new seasons in the US, Mexico and Thailand,” and viewers will now be able to “vote on a cast member to enter each of the new Real World houses and vote on which three past seasons of the show will be available on Watch.”

Facebook says that Showcase “can help advertisers reach younger-skewing audiences that are increasingly difficult to reach on TV.” For example, in the last three months, 43% of people in the US who watched In-Stream Reserve-eligible content on Facebook were 18-34 years old vs 28% of TV viewers. Also, following 13 statistically significant brand lift studies, Facebook found that “In-Stream Reserve drives positive ad recall lift, with a median 10-point incremental lift.” 69% of those same studies “saw an absolute average incremental lift in ad recall that outperformed their vertical benchmark.”

Showcase offers several options to measure results, including Nielsen Total Ad Ratings, Digital Ad Ratings and brand lift offerings from either Facebook or Nielsen. Planning, buying, and measuring video ad campaigns targeted at audiences ages 18+ is made easy with Showcase, and advertisers can use the same processes that premium video and TV ad buyers are already familiar with.